Natural Dam, Arkansas

... Winter weather awareness in Arkansas...

Governor mike Beebe has proclaimed November 16th through 20th as winter
weather awareness week in Arkansas. Sponsors of the awareness week are
the National Weather Service... the Arkansas department of emergency
management... entergy Arkansas... the electric cooperatives of Arkansas...
the Arkansas National guard... the Arkansas State Police... and the American
Red Cross.

People are asked to take some time and prepare for the upcoming winter season.

Todays topic is the outlook for the upcoming winter.

Last winter... temperatures were slightly above normal and precipitation
averaged close to normal across northwestern Arkansas.
Episodes of wintry precipitation were infrequent... though a
winter storm at the end of January brought one half to near
two inches of ice accumulation to northwest Arkansas.

The official outlook issued by the National Weather Service for the
upcoming winter indicates an equal chance for above... near... and
below normal temperatures and precipitataion across the northwestern
Arkansas. Although an El Nino is expected to be ongoing this winter...
there is not a clear trend for temperatures or precipitation across this
portion of Arkansas.

The Table below shows wintertime normals for some locations in northwestern
Arkansas...

City high low precipitation seasonal snow
Bentonville 47.0 24.7 8.25 12.1
Eureka Springs 49.0 28.3 8.60 13.2
Fayetteville 47.5 27.0 7.75 6.3
Fort Smith 51.3 30.5 8.35 6.7
Ozark 51.3 28.0 9.59 5.2
Siloam Springs 48.3 24.7 7.47 11.8

An important thing to note regarding the outlook for the coming
winter is that variability can be expected in the temperature patterns.
There are usually some periods of noticeably cold weather interspersed
with milder periods.

Seasonal outlooks cannot be specific regarding ice and snow storms but
as is usually the case... several bouts of wintry precipitation can be
expected across northwestern Arkansas.

For additional information... contact the National Weather Service office
in Tulsa at 918-838-7838 or visit our website at
www.Weather.Gov/Tulsa